


Thick Skull

by thehappybones



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, im gonna tag as i go along w stuff idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29235705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehappybones/pseuds/thehappybones
Summary: It was a miracle Pat survived that accident, but seeing the dead became more of his curse. With his wife and only confidant recently deceased, he's decided to travel back to where he first developed his ability. The ghosts he caught a glimpse of before he passed out can't be too bad, can they?
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

Carol didn’t stay. He didn’t expect her to or want her to, for her sake at least, and she had been given her six months to live so he had gotten his closure, but it was still sad. 

Lots of family came over in the first week or two and of course the weekly visits with Pat Jr. continued. Pat wished he could’ve known his paternal grandmother. Besides that, the house was quiet now. Scary quiet. And he volunteered plenty and he had friends but at the end of the day he still came home to a silent house. Besides that, now he had no one to talk to about the ghosts.

It was one of those things that didn’t feel proper to share with too many people. Carol believed him and talked with him about it, and that had been enough for him. She was like his connecting point between the realms. It was a lot harder to ignore the bloodied teen employee in the grocery store without someone understanding how it was.

He didn’t ignore them on principle, though. Just where people might notice him acting odd. And he’d tried talking to her before, she just didn’t seem inclined. Carol was the one who reassured him it wasn’t his fault that she seemed so alone. You just couldn’t help some people.

He’d stricken up a real friendship with the man in the park. He was called Nathan, a homeless guy who died fifteen years back. When he visited him three weeks after Carol died, he brought a beer, which he didn’t usually do. 

“Oh, love a beer. My only regret’s I died sober,” Nathan chuckled. 

“You’d wanna be drunk for your whole afterlife? 24/7?” Pat asked. This was a private little corner, so he could talk openly. Although he had run into very confused swingers once.

“Maybe not drunk. Maybe high. Some kind of high. I was dead broke when I died, though, couldn’t afford it.”

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

“I’m sorry about your wife. She seemed nice.” Pat opened his mouth. “She took walks about daily. It’s been a month, so. She didn’t stay, I bet.”

He shook his head. “Can’t be too sad. I’m one of the few people who do know there’s something after. Still a right bummer, though, innit?”

Nathan sagely nodded.

“Well, you’re the death expert. What now?”

He shrugged. “Reckon with your own mortality. It’s s’posed to be good for ya. You’ve come pretty close to death, do you think that makes you more aware of your mortality or makes you feel like you’re immune?”

He stroked the scar on the side of his forehead. Lucky he was so thick-skulled, they joked after he got out of the hospital, else he wouldn’t have survived that accident. 

The boys all joked about the grounds being haunted, and he hadn’t believed them. His doctor told him he’d never seen something get so close to someone’s brain without permanently damaging it, but obviously there had been a change. 

“More aware. I honestly thought I had died. And I thought about my family and the poor scouts and how they would fare. I think I was worse off for it, but I don’t think it would’ve been so bad if I had anyone to talk to about it. No one wanted to talk about how I almost died, it was all about how I miraculously survived. And I couldn’t bring myself to talk to any dead people for a full year afterwards.”

“You saw them immediately, didn’t you?”

“Second the arrow struck.”

Five new figures on the field, right when he opened his eyes. They all dressed so oddly. First he thought they were there to bring him to Heaven, then he considered they were going to drag him to Hell, then he realized they looked as shocked as he felt and wondered if they had always been there. 

“I don’t think I ever told you this bit. Last thing before I passed out, I heard ‘tenner says he stays’.”

Nathan laughed uproariously. “Seem right mean-spirited, these folks!”

“They terrified me!”

“That’s something to do, then. Go back to the grounds, meet these ghosts who first scared you. I’m sure they can’t be that bad.”


	2. Chapter 2

It had been decades since the accident, Pat reminded himself as his car sat on the side of the road, his hands shaking and his heart thumping. It wasn’t going to happen again, or anything like that. That would be ridiculous. The hotel grounds were as safe as any other part of the world and he was just incredibly unlucky way back in the eighties. 

He forced himself out of it and got back on the road. He had to admit to himself as he approached, it was a beautiful house, and it looked like the new owners had done a lot of landscaping work. It was about noon when he arrived and there were four other cars parked out front. No ghosts yet. 

He brought his bags in and smiled at the woman at the front desk. “Hello! Lovely day, innit?”

She beamed. “Hi! You must be Patrick Butcher. Here, let me take your bags.” She rushed out and he managed to read her name tag. Alison. She seemed a tad high-strung.

“Gorgeous place,” he said. 

“Yes. Wonderful house, lots of fascinating history. You can follow me to your room.”

They passed through a large room with lots of comfortable chairs and tables and beautiful big bookshelves and a mounted TV, where two middle-aged men were silently watching a football game and- oh Lord, those were two ghosts.

Alison seemed to notice his interest. “Right. This is where the complementary breakfast is served. Six to ten AM.”

He recognized them, too. The bloody young man in the waistcoat and the grey-haired soldier. They both watched him nearly die.

They noticed him and he pretending he wasn’t looking. “Does he look familiar?” the soldier said. Ghosts were so loud, seeing as they were convinced no one could hear them anyways.

Alison started walking again and Pat followed. “So we’ve got pamphlets about the surrounding villages, if you’d like to grab a bite to eat or check out any shops. The grounds are great for a walk. There’s seven other people staying here right now, if you-” she unlocked and opened the door to his room and her eyes widened at the man folding towels. “Mike!”

“Oh. Sorry, thought you weren’t here yet. Just, uh, freshening things up.”

“Perfectly alright.” Pat took his bags in and took the key from Alison. “Well, many thanks for the introduction. I’ll just, uh…”

They quickly got the hint and left him be. He shut the door.

He had to talk to them eventually. That was the whole point of coming, wasn’t it? Meet the only dead people that still scared him. He touched his scar again. It was nearly faded by now, but he could still feel the slight bump above his skull. 

He’d quit the whole scouting thing. He tried it once after he recovered, but when the carving knives came out he found himself jittery and light-headed. Ironically enough, his accident did more for Keith than his time as a Scoutmaster ever did. His parents had signed him up to deal with his behavioral issues, but the whole ordeal had scared him straight. Stand-up guy now. Pat still saw him regularly. 

His room didn’t look out on the field, which he was grateful for. He really didn’t expect to be so frazzled by everything. Maybe he should check out the town.

“Well, maybe he’s a relative of one of the builders,” Julian offered.

“No. No, I recognize him specifically,” the Captain countered. “Alison, would you please inquire as to whether he’s been on the property before?”

“No,” she said. The dads watching TV glanced at her, saw her phone up to her ear, and looked away. “That would be rude. He’s a paying guest.”

“He is alone,” Mike whispered to her. “Old guy, by himself… kind of weird. Maybe they recognize him ‘cause he’s tried to, like, rob the place before. Or something.”

“Well we have security cameras now, so we’ll be fine.”

He shrugged. “Just saying.”

“Speak of the Devil,” Julian muttered.

“Oh, do not do such things, ‘tis dangerous business,” Mary squeaked.

Pat rushed by, briefly nodding to Alison and Mike when they greeted him. He was looking towards the floor otherwise. 

“I think he seems fine,” Kitty said. “ I recognize him too and, well, if I knew him because he was doing anything nasty, I would sense it. I think.”

“Don’t see what all the fuss is about,” Julian muttered. “Never seen that man before in my life.”

Pat didn’t expect to relax much and as instantly when he got out into the village and started seeing other ghosts. It really was just those specific ones. He supposed them plus the environment brought him back to the incident. They seemed perfectly fine, and he was sure he’d get along with them as well as he did most dead folk if he could figure out how to talk to them. He wished Carol was here.

He had a late lunch and spent the time on his laptop (few years old now, but it worked just fine) researching the hotel. No time at all before he found haunting rumors. Picture of a “grey lady”, not one he’d run into yet if it was a real photo. Some people were talking about a “mass grave” in the basement, that seemed a little dramatic. World War II base, that might be the soldier. He stumbled on an old news article. The pantless man he hadn’t recognized. “That was  _ him _ ?” he mumbled.

Pat had had plenty of time to figure out how the whole thing work. Chatted with lots of ghosts, figured out the patterns, knew very well that he could’ve been stuck there himself if he hadn’t made it. The hotel afterlife scene certainly seemed… colorful. 

In the first few months, he was truly convinced they were hallucinations. If he stared at them for too long, they would give him odd looks back, but none of them ever tried to communicate first. Ghosts mostly seemed to wander around, looking dazed and lost, pantomiming normal life. Of course Pat thought they weren’t real. Slowly, he started to find the consistency in their appearance and actions odd. He would research the places he saw them, find obituaries and historical studies that lined up with the specters. Carol was supportive and helpful the whole way through.

Even when he was certain they were real, it was difficult to talk to them. He only saw his own death. But a week after the anniversary, when he was on vacation, he found a lonely little girl in a tattered dress on a beach. He couldn’t stop himself and he talked to her every day, trying to repair her spirits, asking about her family and her favorite games and stories from back when she was alive. One day he came down to the beach and she wasn’t there anymore, and he hoped he had helped her. 

They were still people, after all, and many of them had no one to talk to. He helped when he could. They were recovering, same as him.

He just had to talk to them. He’d find a way to tonight. There were only two owners, and at a certain point they’d go to sleep and he could track down the ghosts and have a little chat without anyone listening in. 

Pat had been a little worried about finding where they spent their nights, but he only had to wander around for a few minutes before he heard conversation. Sounded like a massive group. He was glad he knew that very very few ghosts could do living people any actual harm, or he’d be terrified.

He tracked the voices down to a door on the first level marked “STAFF ONLY”. He took a deep breath and contemplated listening in on their conversation before realizing there were too many overlapping bickering voices to pick anything out. Timidly, he tried the handle. It was unlocked. 

Six wide pairs of eyes stared back at him. Four of them he could still recognize. The caveman was missing. He distinctly remembered a caveman. 

“Alison! Alison!” the soldier barked. “This scoundrel is attempting to enter your office!”

“Cap, what on Earth are you-” He spun around and found the hotel owner right behind him. They stared at each other for a few seconds. 

“Quite the crowd you’ve got in here,” Pat said.

Her expression was unreadable, but if you had him at gunpoint he’d put it at some mix of shock, fear, and pleasant surprise. “You can see them too?” she whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

Inhuman grunting approached from the hallway. “Me know where man from!” Robin rushed in and froze. “Oh.”

“The caveman,” Pat whispered.

Mary gasped. “Oh, he’s the one who’s almost got hit by the arrows! Nearly died, he did.”

“Right,” Alison said. “So you also almost died, and now you can also see ghosts. That’s- okay.” She smiled. “I kind of thought it was just me!”

“I’ve never heard of another one neither. All the ones who said they were, well-”

“Yes! Oh my God, they’re surrounded by ghosts and they’re just-”

“Oh, well, no energy here!”

“Infuriating!”

“Wait,” the Captain said. “This man was breaking into your office, but he sees us and suddenly it’s all hunky dory?”

“Cap, if he attempted to murder me we would be hunky dory. How do you not realize how cool this is?” The Captain awkwardly hemmed and hawed for a bit before Alison shooed them all out and welcomed Pat into the comfortable dining chair she had tucked into the corner of her office.

“Okay. So what’s this about an arrow?”

Pat scoffed. “Oh, that. Back in eighties, I brought my scouts down here. One of ‘em nicked me right in the forehead, nearly went into my brain. Been seeing ghosts ever since.”

“And some of them  _ saw _ that happen? They’ve never mentioned it.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ve seen plenty more exciting. I saw them too, though. Nearly killed me, ‘longside the arrow, course. I haven’t been scared of ghosts in a long time, but that memory, seeing them right before I blacked out. Still gives me the shivers.”

She nodded. “I fell out of a window right after I moved in here. They were, uh, pretty insistent that I acknowledge them immediately. They’re like cats, I swear.”

Pat giggled. “You’ve got a proper command of them.”

“We mostly get on. They’re not too hard to figure out. So, why’d you come back here?”

He tried to be succinct about it, not get too wrapped up in the touchy-feely parts. It was exposure therapy, more or less, and Alison promised she’d try to make the ghosts be gentle about it. Might be best not to tell them Pat was still scared of them, though. Some of her crew had a bit too much fun with that sort of thing.

When it got hard to keep his eyes open, Pat gently reminded her that he was a very old man and that he needed to be in bed soon enough and she let him go. He expected to have a hard time sleeping on his little trip, but he didn’t know it would be from excitement. Finally, someone who had half a chance of understanding his world!

They regrouped in the library, the dedicated ghost zone when Alison wasn’t hosting any special events. Julian was still confused. 

“It was me, Thomas, Robin, Mary, and Katherine,” the Captain said. “A troop of boys were visiting the grounds.”

“They were so lovely,” Kitty sighed. 

“Most exciting thing that had happened in a decade,” Thomas muttered.

“During archery practice, Mr. Butcher was struck in the temple by an arrow. He looked right at us. Honestly, it was very disturbing. He was carried off shortly afterwards and- well, I had believed he died off the grounds.”

“We were certain he would join us in this afterlife,” Thomas said. “Isn’t it most unsettling to be reminded that people age?”

The group murmured in general agreement. It was jealousy, though they’d never admit it.

In the morning, Pat and Alison had breakfast together while Mike worked the desk. He seemed to have no idea how to deal with it, and instead just waved at Pat and attempted a smile.

“He’s really very supportive. Even when I was first figuring it out and kind of acted like a crazy person.”

She reminded him so much of his younger self, but maybe a little bit better-adjusted. He remembered how crucial Carol was in the very beginning, keeping him stable, even when his best friend just stopped visiting them without ever explaining why. “You cherish him. Really appreciate him, hear me?”

She grimaced and nodded.

After breakfast, he met the plague pit in the basement, who were maybe the nicest ghosts he’d ever met, and then it was Alison’s turn to work the desk and he entertained himself with a walk around the grounds. Were those two working this place round the clock all by themselves? Ah, the boundless energy of youth.

One of the ghosts came up from behind him and caught him by surprise. He yelped. 

“Sincerest apologies. Wondering if I could join you. Nice, brisk air, good for the muscles.”

“Right. You’re the Captain, aren’t you? Alison told me the basics.” He shoved his shaking hands in his coat pockets.

“That is how I’m known around here, yes.”

“As opposed to where, mate?” He laughed at his joke. The Captain didn’t seem to get it. Right. “Massive grounds here. S’pose that’s why there’s so many of you lot.” He paused in front of the field. The grass was turning brown. 

“That’s where you set up the archery, wasn’t it?”

He nodded. “Why were you watching us, anyhow?”

“I respect order. Command, the teaching of responsibility to young men. It’s a noble pursuit. Not a bad way to nearly die, if I must say so myself.” He cleared his throat. “Apologies if we startled you.”

“No, not at all. Well, maybe a little bit.”

“Robin thought you’d make a good addition. Leadership, a chipper attitude. He seemed a touch disappointed when you made it through the fence alive.”

Pat chuckled. “Bit grim. No offense, but I’m glad I came through. And I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“I wouldn’t mind someone else helping keep order. Just something to ponder.”

He did, for a moment. Spending decades in this massive mansion, passing the hours with the bizarre crew Alison seemed to know so well already. Running around in his scoutmaster uniform until he passed on. “Sounds awful,” he said. The Captain hummed in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit anticlimactic but that's pretty much all I wanted to do with this. thanks for joining me on this journey. love ya.


End file.
